4,000 Chinese cruise ship passengers sweep through small Japanese village, buying out goods

Over 4,000 Chinese tourists traveling on a luxury cruise last week landed in a small Japanese village and reportedly cleared out shelves of products, leaving locals fuming as they were unable to purchase even basic necessities.

The massive cruise ship, Quantum of the Seas, departed last Monday from Shanghai to embark on a six-day-five-night trip, with each passenger paying about 140,000 Japanese yen.

After stopping at Fukuoka prefecture’s Hakata-ku city, the cruise ship anchored down in a port at Sakaiminato city, Tottori Prefecture.

Upon landing on the island, the tourists went sightseeing at Hiezu Village, the only village in the western part of the city. With a population of only 3,455, the Chinese tourists outnumbered the locals, TBS News reports last Thursday.

Indeed, the village is not a popular tourist destination, having served only tour groups of at most some 200 guests. Nonetheless, shop owners put up Chinese signs and found Mandarin translators, and ended up selling out shelves of products including eye drops, cosmetic products, rice cookers and vacuum flasks.